iPad Air activations jump 51% over Black Friday weekend

It's really starting to look like Tim Cook's prediction of an "iPad Christmas" was right on the money. With the busiest holiday shopping weekend of the year now behind us, new data reveals that the iPad Air sold exceedingly well.

According to data compiled by Localytics, the number of iPad Air activations increased by 50 percent during the Black Friday through Cyber Monday window.

Localytics examined the weekly growth during the Black Friday weekend, as compared to the previous weekend. According to Localytics' data, a whopping 51% more new iPad Air devices were seen than the previous week. This is due to a combination of factors, including Apple's promotion of giving gift cards with purchases of the iPad Air and iPad Mini (but not iPad Mini 2nd gen) devices. This, combined with a smaller base of iPad Air devices and the novelty of the iPad Air (released on November 1st) resulted in the iPad Air dominating on Black Friday weekend. Apple's older iPad Mini model finished second, and the iPhone 5c took third.

Indeed, some of the iPad deals seen this weekend were some of the best I remember seeing on new Apple devices in some time. Target, for instance, was giving away US$100 gift cards with each iPad Air purchase.

As to the increase in activations, Localytics' data might be a little bit more telling if it were compared to data from another weekend. In other words, it stands to reason that iPad Air activations during the weekend before Black Friday would be unusually low as folks likely held off on purchases in order to take advantage of Black Friday promotions.

Nonetheless, this is all good news for Apple as the number of new iPad Air activations easily eclipsed new activations from competing tablets from the likes of Amazon and Samsung.